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Social marketing startup Earshot is announcing that it has raised $1.7 million in new funding.

Founder and CEO David Rush told me that unlike most social listening and marketing tools, Earshot is less focused on helping businesses interact with people who are already fans and customers, and more on helping them find new customers, even if “they’re not using the right handle or hashtag.”

To do that, Rush said Earshot combines user profiles with location data, so it can recommend who to reach out to on social media and what to say to them. A big focus is “right time, right place scenarios.” To cite the example that tops the Earshot website, a store that sells umbrellas could use Earshot to find people nearby who are tweeting about the rain, and then send them a tweet inviting them to the store.

Not that a business has to use Earshot for selling something to someone immediately, Rush said. For example, an outdoor goods store could tweet firestarting tips to people who are out camping, where “the goal is less about transactional couponing and more about winning customers for life.”

Earshot says its customers include Nissan, IBM, SFX Entertainment, and the Chicago White Sox. And Rush suggested that the company will be expanding its product over time. It’s too early to offer product details, he said, but Earshot has plans for “a whole new perspective on relevancy, with location being one of the variables.”

Lakewest Venture Partners

Lakewest Venture Partners is an affiliate of Lakewest, Inc., a real estate and private equity company located in Chicago. It is led by Buzz Ruttenberg, David Mann and Jonathan McCulloch and was formed to pursue seed and early stage investment opportunities primarily in Chicago. Our investments and participation in companies can range from passive $50,000-$100,000 investments to those in excess of $1,000,000 with board involvement. Our primary investment capital is sourced in-house which makes our decision-making process straightforward and swift. We also operate a fund raised from private investors for additional investment capacity.